Strange start-up message

A

adamvk

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 16, 2008
Messages
433
On one of my computers, when it starts up, I always get a dialog box that comes up simply saying "fAIL" (Yes the "f" is lowercase) Anyone know what this might mean? I'm thinking maybe a virus, because this computer has been crashing almost every 20 minutes lately. I've run multiple scans, and have found nothing. Anyone have an idea of what this might mean, or what to do? Thanks!

Simple specs:

2.2GHZ Core 2 Duo
2GB Ram
Windows XP Home w/ SP2
 
is the message fAIL associated with your bios/post screen or does it appear once windows has started to boot up and you get to see the windows boot screen with the blue scrolling bar at the bottom?

it would help us to know where the words fAIL are coming from, i.e POST/bios or actual windows when its booting.

If its post/bios related then you can virtually rule out a virus, well rule it out with 99.9% certainty anyway.
 
Sorry....Its after WINDOWS is booted, with the blue scrolling bar at the bottom. It doesnt show up when bios is run through.
 
Never heard of the problem before. If you can try a different account or something? Run a full sweep with Superantispyware.
 
adamvk said:
Sorry....Its after WINDOWS is booted, with the blue scrolling bar at the bottom. It doesnt show up when bios is run through.
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Probably malware.

What about Safe Mode?

Might give NOD32 a shot to see if it picks anything up.
 
This is maybe asking too much, but can you post a screenshot or a photo taken from a camera or cell phone, just to see exactly where you are seeing it.

also, try a few online virus scanners and also try the free version of superantispyware

But I would personally like to see exactly when it pops up, as it could be a virus or spyware but it could also be failure to load some files or a failure of some kind in a piece of hardware but said piece of hardware seems to continue to function ok.

Could be any number of things, but if you can get a picture of it that would be great, as it maybe able to help us track down what the cause is.
 
To be fair, I've seen spelling and wording in older Abit manuals that would make you think a hacker or some hacker-wannabe high school kid wrote.
 
DeaconFrost said:
To be fair, I've seen spelling and wording in older Abit manuals that would make you think a hacker or some hacker-wannabe high school kid wrote.
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Are you talking to me or someone else? Please clarify, because this could me an insult to me....I'm not sure. :)
 
How would that be an insult to you? My point was, just because the spelling and grammar in the error message are poor, doesn't mean it is the result of malware or a hacker.
 
DeaconFrost said:
My point was, just because the spelling and grammar in the error message are poor, doesn't mean it is the result of malware or a hacker.
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Exactly, some of the spelling shit I have seen on older PC's are insane, that goes for manuals ( even new pc manuals suffer from it to some degree ), bios and post messages and even some applications depending on who wrote said application and their grasp of english.

But since your pc is crashing every 20 minutes then you definetly have some sort of problem, could range from heat to software related or dodgy hardware, could be practically anything, thats why I asked of a picture to see if any clues to could be gleaned from it.
 
DeaconFrost said:
How would that be an insult to you? My point was, just because the spelling and grammar in the error message are poor, doesn't mean it is the result of malware or a hacker.
Click to expand...

Wow Ya I was a little out of it....I was thinking you were talking about one of the comments, not the error message. My apologies :)

Anyways, heres the screenshot, like I said, its right when Windows starts loading everything

ScreenShot.jpg
 
OK that DEFINATELY looks like malware or something... As you can see- the computer booted just fine. It's in Windows.

Run msconfig and check the startup tab to see what all is starting up- and remove the crap A) you don't need and B) that might cause that.

You may also be able to look at the running processes during that time to see what is causing it.
 
I'd run ccleaner and check the registry, also Malwarebytes anti malware, and see if they can find the value that causes that to appear. I've also heard good things about spybot and super anti spyware though I personally haven't used them.
 
Yup, its definetly an application of sometype, whether its malware or a genuine application that has failed to load properly, it could be either or, but scan for dodgy shit first then msconfig and see if you have any programs running on startup that should be visible to you in the systray with an icon of somesort, but are not.

but definetly do a scan for malware/spyware/viri first then once you have done that, then you can get onto looking into your startup programs.

if once you do msconfig and you are unsure of which startup programs are legit, post a screenshot of your startup programs and we will hopefully be able to weed out the shit you dont need.

Too see what programs startup with windows, goto start and then run and then type msconfig and push enter, that will bring up a list, you should then select the startup tab at the top and nothing else ( unless you know what your doing that is ;) ), as you can cause major problems messing about in the other tabs if you are unsure what you are doing.

Anyone got any ideas what the icon in the taskbar next to his mspaint icon is, its obviously got to do with the fail message, but i cant quite make the icon out, maybe if someone has seen the icon before it would speed things up ?

Also as threedee says, check event viewer for any applications that failed to load or whatever.

To be honest, I think I used to get the same fAIL popup message when asus probe didnt load properly, I dont think thats the problem here, but if he has asus probe which is a temp monitoring program then it could be the cause, but I am sure asus probe caused that same fAIL message with me ages ago on bootup, but I dont know if he has the same problem that I suffered from.
 
I've got no clue what that is but it certainly looks shady. Any idea of the last major thing you did before you got the error?
 
Have you installed a cheap chinese webcam (or other cheap USB device) on your PC ever?
Some of the drivers fail with random stupid messages.
 
I know this is of little help...but I lol'd at that screenshot - mostly for the lowercase f haha

a big +1 for ccleaner, does some great things with our machines at work!
 
I figured it out. No its not a Chinese webcam, but my Chinese media card reader.
 
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